The psychological impact of COVID‐19 on students and academics at a Higher Education Institution in the United Kingdom

This study investigates the psychological impact of COVID‐19 on students and academics at a Higher Education Institution in the UK. We used critical reflective writing, in which ten students and ten lecturers wrote a short reflection (approximately 200 words) on their experience of the lockdown prior to the study. Secondly, transcriptions were gathered for analysis. Inductive Thematic Analysis was selected as the preferred method of investigation to identify, analyse, and report themes from the dataset. The specific study aims were: (a) to present an empirical investigation into the psychological impact of COVID‐19, (b) to explore the interplay between social isolation and mental health, and (c) to examine how the affected individuals understand their experiences. The health impact of COVID-19 included physiological and mental health aspects and reflected the importance of teacher and student psychological wellbeing for teaching and learning. The paper highlights that there is a need for psycho-social crisis prevention and intervention models tailored to support students' and academics' psychological wellbeing, arguing that considerations should be made to adjust expectations from students in relation to progression, and staff, in relation to workload.